This invention relates generally to wheels for vehicles such as heavy duty trucks and trailers and, more particularly to a device for positioning and supporting a wrench and socket extension when engaged with a wheel lug nut.
Wrenches, such as torque wrenches, are known in the prior art. Torque wrenches allow a wheel lug nut, or wheel nut, to be tightened to a specified torque, which is required for safe operation and use of the wheel. Wheel nuts used to attached wheels to heavy duty vehicles typically require tightening to a much higher torque than conventional consumer vehicles, such as automobiles. To rotate wheel nuts to a high torque reading using manual equipment, such as a hand-operated torque wrench, it is often necessary to use a wrench with an extended or elongated handle, or to add a pipe or extension to the wrench, to achieve sufficient leverage. Because the wheel nuts are often set back considerably from the outer wall of the tire mounted on the wheel, a socket extension is often attached between the nut socket and the head of the wrench.
A wrench fitted with a socket extension and elongated handle or handle extension can be difficult to use without a stand to support the head of the wrench or the socket extension. It is usually necessary for the operator to be proximate the wheel to engage the socket with a wheel nut, yet the operator must then move distal from the wheel to grasp the distal end of the handle, which may be several feet away from the wheel. If the operator releases the head of the wrench and attached socket extension in order to move to the distal end of the handle, the wrench socket will often slip from the nut as the, typically, loose connection between the socket and nut is insufficient to support the weight of the socket, socket extension and wrench.
In the prior art, stands have been developed that can support the wrench, socket extension and socket, however, these stands either require moving the wheel to position each nut at a particular elevation relative to the stand before use, or inserting the socket extension in slot within the stand that most closely aligns with a given socket.
What is need is a device for supporting a wrench, socket extension and socket that is continuously adjustable in height relative to the ground so that the wrench may be readily positioned at an elevation that exactly matches that of a wheel nut and that also may be attached to the wrench so that the stand and wrench may be readily moved from nut to another as a unit.